Boswell, James

Boswell, James (1740–95), the eldest son of Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck (pron. Affleck), a Scottish judge. He reluctantly studied law at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Utrecht, his ambition being directed towards literature and politics. He met Dr Johnson in London on 16 May 1763; he then went to Holland and on through Europe to Italy. He met Voltaire and Rousseau, who inspired him with zeal for the cause of Corsican liberty, and he visited Corsica in 1765, establishing a lifelong friendship with General Paoli. On his return to Scotland he ‘passed advocate’ and was to practise there and in England for the rest of his life. His first substantial work, An Account of Corsica (1768), was followed in December of that year by a book of essays ‘in favour of the brave Corsicans’ which he edited. Although his family remained in Scotland, Boswell visited London as frequently as possible. Johnson and Boswell made their celebrated tour of Scotland and the Hebrides in 1773, in which year Boswell was elected a member of the Club. His Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides appeared in 1785. The rest of Boswell's life was devoted to an unsuccessful pursuit of a political career (he was recorder of Carlisle, 1788–90) and to the immense task of assembling materials for and composing his life of Johnson, a labour in which he was encouraged by Malone. The Life of Samuel Johnson appeared in 1791.